Eddie 'Wen Go
A Play by Marion Lyman-Mersereau
Concept Statement:
The play, Eddie Wen’ Go, the story of the Upside-Down Canoe, is a TYA tribute to Eddie Aikau that coincides with the Hōkūle’a round-the-world voyage. This imaginative production uses hula, chant, masks, and puppetry to tell of Eddie Aikau’s act of sacrifice through the eyes of sea creatures who watched from underneath the upside-down canoe.
Pulling inspiration from historic resources, the scenic and puppet design seeks to create a vivid oceanic environment that will morph from an underwater world occupied by striking multi-person puppets who will swim and glide in the theatre space, to the deck of the historic Hōkūle’a as crew members navigate the waters under the veil of a starlit sky. A color palette pulled from bathymetric ocean floor maps, a kaleidoscope of blues and teals, will be the backdrop and underscore the striking subtle white-tint variations of the puppets during the underwater scenes and highlight the amber sails of the Hōkūle’a when they are revealed.
Design process
Click on the text buttons in the above categories to view pop out windows.
The slide shows present an in-depth representation of the design process executed for the production.
Presentations
To engage audiences prior to the live stage production, a series of short were created that could be viewed online. Below is the intro that was designed and animated by myself to correlate with the scenic design.